Tuesday, February 2, 2010

How to Boil an Egg

I did make a discovery just yesterday. Inspired by the new film Julie and Julia (a blog post on these great ladies later), I realized I had never learned how to properly boil an egg.

How embarrassing!!!

How will I be able to poach an egg, and dip it into a homemade Hollandaise sauce (coming soon), if I cannot even boil one first? How can I call myself a "foodie", if I am so devoid of the understanding of how to properly prepare for myself a hard-boiled egg? Enough questions, Shannon! Time for answers. So I took two eggs, Googled "how to boil an egg", and here's what I found:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2047398_boil-perfect-hard-boiled-egg.html

All you do is:
1) Place the whole, uncooked, un-cracked, preferably fresh eggs into a saucepan.
2) Fill saucepan with cold water, completely covering eggs. Do not salt the water.
3) Place saucepan onto stove on high heat until water comes to a rolling boil.
4) Set timer for 3 minutes, allowing eggs to boil away. Do not cover.
5) When timer dings, remove saucepan from heat, cover with saucepan lid; re-set timer for 8 minutes.
6) After the 8 minutes is up, rinse eggs under cold running tap water for around 1 minute, then peel and eat.

It's that simple. And, as the e-how guide vows, you will never have green or gray yolks again. It's true. My egg yolks, which I usually discard because they're too hard or green or gray and generally nasty, were plump and soft and yellow and tasty. And the white part? Out of this world moist and easy to swallow. I'm not a big egg person but I even had two!

Happy egg boiling,
Shannon

Why Writing Is Tough For Me, or a glimpse into my zany brain

I am the biggest procrastinator in the universe. I'm worse than anyone I know, have ever met, or will ever meet. I will do everything in the house besides what I need, or even want, to do. I hate making beds, but I'll wash the sheets, wait for them to dry, make the bed, take the pillowcases off and put them back on again, (Ok so I'm OCD too) fluff the pillows, re-arrange the already obsessively-placed pillows into a more fitting color pattern, then decide I don't like the current down comforter...head to the hall closet in search of a better, warmer, prettier down duvet (comforters are SO early 2000s and we're in a new decade...need a new bedspread), and realize the closet is a mess! Time to reorganize! ADD, anyone? 2 hours (and 3 closets) later, the bed is made, but I still have to make my way down my to-do list...

I moved to Washington, DC on the first of November. I still need a new day job, new apartment, new family practice doctor, new ladies doctor, new psychiatrist, new therapist, new massage therapist, an acupuncturist recommended by my current 6 doctors, new trigger point therapist, new dermatologist, etc. Ok, I've never been to a dermatologist, nor a massage therapist, but now's as good a time as any, right?

Alright, I admit it. Along with OCD, ADD, SAD, and pretty much every other anxiety disorder you can think up, I'm a hypochondriac, too. My shoulder's been hurting for 3 years and I'm finally getting around to working toward solutions. Then 3 weeks ago my knee gives out. Like an 86 year old grandma. Not even joking. While I'm getting into a kneeling position to start the exercises my physical therapist gave me for my frozen shoulder, I simultaneously feel/hear 3 clicks of the knee then I'm on my face. O-M-Geeee. Did I mention I have zero pain tolerance?

So how am I ever to update my food blog when I'm on the floor, clearly so forgetful due to ADD that I sometimes forget to eat, not to mention the social anxiety disorder that keeps me indoors, out of the judgmental public's eye? How can I go to restaurants-- Out the door?? Onto the metro??? Into the city????

This a little taste of me. It may sound extreme, but I got issues. Doesn't everybody? I try to laugh about them. I laugh at myself. Oh I'm VERY good at being self-deprecating. I could do stand-up...if I wasn't so petrified of being in a large group of people. All staring at me. Waiting for me to make them laugh. I write, so I can see humor in just how much of a crack-up I am. It's my passive-aggressive way of throwing myself out there to the world. But the truth is, I'm alright. I'll be ok. I read many books, and this lifelong habit helps me to realize I'm not the only fruit loop out there.

Anne Lamott, for example, has all kinds of issues, and look how funny her books are. She is one of my heroes. If her life was perfect, I wouldn't want to read about her. Hello, can we say boring? The imperfections are what make her REAL and FUNNY and HUMAN, hence a better read. Besides, I think we all compare ourselves to others so we come out looking "normal"- even though I don't believe "normal" even exists. Anne Lamott is quirky, but knows who her friends are. She seems the type who can laugh as hard as she can cry-- who doesn't care about her past, as messed up as it may look on paper. In fact, writing those messes out turned her into the beloved writer and fantastic woman that she is today.

This is how I want to be. I want to be like Anne Lamott, who started out as a food writer by the way, and now is this hilarious role model writer lady. Based on her quirks and impurities, she's the funniest writer on the market. In my book, she couldn't be more lovable.

So about the food, as it is, after all, the reason for this blog...

please read next post, entitled "How to Boil an Egg"...

It's OK to be quirky,
Shannon

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

How to Boil an Egg

I did make a discovery just yesterday. Inspired by the new film Julie and Julia (a blog post on these great ladies later), I realized I had never learned how to properly boil an egg.

How embarrassing!!!

How will I be able to poach an egg, and dip it into a homemade Hollandaise sauce (coming soon), if I cannot even boil one first? How can I call myself a "foodie", if I am so devoid of the understanding of how to properly prepare for myself a hard-boiled egg? Enough questions, Shannon! Time for answers. So I took two eggs, Googled "how to boil an egg", and here's what I found:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2047398_boil-perfect-hard-boiled-egg.html

All you do is:
1) Place the whole, uncooked, un-cracked, preferably fresh eggs into a saucepan.
2) Fill saucepan with cold water, completely covering eggs. Do not salt the water.
3) Place saucepan onto stove on high heat until water comes to a rolling boil.
4) Set timer for 3 minutes, allowing eggs to boil away. Do not cover.
5) When timer dings, remove saucepan from heat, cover with saucepan lid; re-set timer for 8 minutes.
6) After the 8 minutes is up, rinse eggs under cold running tap water for around 1 minute, then peel and eat.

It's that simple. And, as the e-how guide vows, you will never have green or gray yolks again. It's true. My egg yolks, which I usually discard because they're too hard or green or gray and generally nasty, were plump and soft and yellow and tasty. And the white part? Out of this world moist and easy to swallow. I'm not a big egg person but I even had two!

Happy egg boiling,
Shannon

Why Writing Is Tough For Me, or a glimpse into my zany brain

I am the biggest procrastinator in the universe. I'm worse than anyone I know, have ever met, or will ever meet. I will do everything in the house besides what I need, or even want, to do. I hate making beds, but I'll wash the sheets, wait for them to dry, make the bed, take the pillowcases off and put them back on again, (Ok so I'm OCD too) fluff the pillows, re-arrange the already obsessively-placed pillows into a more fitting color pattern, then decide I don't like the current down comforter...head to the hall closet in search of a better, warmer, prettier down duvet (comforters are SO early 2000s and we're in a new decade...need a new bedspread), and realize the closet is a mess! Time to reorganize! ADD, anyone? 2 hours (and 3 closets) later, the bed is made, but I still have to make my way down my to-do list...

I moved to Washington, DC on the first of November. I still need a new day job, new apartment, new family practice doctor, new ladies doctor, new psychiatrist, new therapist, new massage therapist, an acupuncturist recommended by my current 6 doctors, new trigger point therapist, new dermatologist, etc. Ok, I've never been to a dermatologist, nor a massage therapist, but now's as good a time as any, right?

Alright, I admit it. Along with OCD, ADD, SAD, and pretty much every other anxiety disorder you can think up, I'm a hypochondriac, too. My shoulder's been hurting for 3 years and I'm finally getting around to working toward solutions. Then 3 weeks ago my knee gives out. Like an 86 year old grandma. Not even joking. While I'm getting into a kneeling position to start the exercises my physical therapist gave me for my frozen shoulder, I simultaneously feel/hear 3 clicks of the knee then I'm on my face. O-M-Geeee. Did I mention I have zero pain tolerance?

So how am I ever to update my food blog when I'm on the floor, clearly so forgetful due to ADD that I sometimes forget to eat, not to mention the social anxiety disorder that keeps me indoors, out of the judgmental public's eye? How can I go to restaurants-- Out the door?? Onto the metro??? Into the city????

This a little taste of me. It may sound extreme, but I got issues. Doesn't everybody? I try to laugh about them. I laugh at myself. Oh I'm VERY good at being self-deprecating. I could do stand-up...if I wasn't so petrified of being in a large group of people. All staring at me. Waiting for me to make them laugh. I write, so I can see humor in just how much of a crack-up I am. It's my passive-aggressive way of throwing myself out there to the world. But the truth is, I'm alright. I'll be ok. I read many books, and this lifelong habit helps me to realize I'm not the only fruit loop out there.

Anne Lamott, for example, has all kinds of issues, and look how funny her books are. She is one of my heroes. If her life was perfect, I wouldn't want to read about her. Hello, can we say boring? The imperfections are what make her REAL and FUNNY and HUMAN, hence a better read. Besides, I think we all compare ourselves to others so we come out looking "normal"- even though I don't believe "normal" even exists. Anne Lamott is quirky, but knows who her friends are. She seems the type who can laugh as hard as she can cry-- who doesn't care about her past, as messed up as it may look on paper. In fact, writing those messes out turned her into the beloved writer and fantastic woman that she is today.

This is how I want to be. I want to be like Anne Lamott, who started out as a food writer by the way, and now is this hilarious role model writer lady. Based on her quirks and impurities, she's the funniest writer on the market. In my book, she couldn't be more lovable.

So about the food, as it is, after all, the reason for this blog...

please read next post, entitled "How to Boil an Egg"...

It's OK to be quirky,
Shannon